With a poll showing him beating Jon Huntsman in South Carolina, comedian Stephen Colbert asked his fans Wednesday night if he should jump into the race and he promised a special announcement coming Thursday night.

Colbert was agonizing over which Republican presidential candidate to support ahead of the South Carolina primary in his search for a non-Mitt Romney candidate when the answer suddenly came to him: “Oh my God! It’s me!”

“It all makes so much sense! … [M]y heart always leads me to me! And I am so not Mitt!” Colbert said after reveling in his audience’s applause and cheers. “But wait, wait, wait, wait — that’s crazy! These guys have been running for a year now. How can I ever compete with an established candidate like Jon Huntsman?”

Of course, Colbert was shown earlier this week polling ahead of Huntsman in South Carolina — 5 percent to the former Utah governor’s 4 percent.

“This just got real,” Colbert said. “A major pollster has me at 5 percent, ahead of the third place finisher in New Hampshire.”

Huntsman himself had laughed off the Public Policy Polling survey findings on Tuesday, saying, “When I was on his show recently, [Colbert] promised me the ‘Colbert bump’ — I think we’re getting that here in New Hampshire. Now we’re going to be looking for the Colbert bump in South Carolina.”

Colbert had this explanation for why the Colbert bump hasn’t been working its magic on Huntsman: “I’m sorry Gov. Huntsman. I guess the Colbert bump reflected off of you and bounced back to me. That happens in the rare instances when my guests are whiter than I am.”

The comedian promised his fans that he would “go home, sit down and talk it over with my money,” before making a “major announcement” on his show Thursday night.